More tales of how the high-rise residents got out

December 10, 2009

Wearing an oven mitt on his right hand and a sock on the other that he swiped from the laundry room of a nearby building, Larry Braskamp, 68, recalled being awakened by his wife in their 33rd floor apartment at about 1 a.m.

"She shook me up, because she heard the alarm. Then we got up and got dressed," he said.

A public address system that is part of the fire alarm told residents to stay in their units. But smoke began seeping into the apartment. Minutes later a firefighter knocked on their door and lead them out into the hallway.

"We couldn't see anything because the smoke was pretty intense," he said. "It got worse and worse then my eyes started to hurt."

As they walked down the stairs holding wet clothes over their faces, they said to each other they were fortunate they did not have animals or children. A neighbor had an 18-month-old and a 4-week-old child, they said.

She said she was lying in bed when she heard the building's fire alarm/public address system blare.

"My living room was filled with smoke. You couldn't see anything. So I was holed up in my bedroom," Bendix said, her hands, face and part of her red sweater covered in smoke.

She was in phone contact with two people who live in the building. One of those people was Carole Shapero, who lives on the 34th floor. Shapero said she was awoken by a phone call about the fire from Bendix.

"There was more smoke in my living room than in my bedroom," Shapero said. "But there were lots and lots of firemen outside my [unit]."

"I was actually opening my door and communicating with the firemen, and sending them up to her [Katherine's] place."

"They finally got to my [bed]room," Bendix said of the firefighters, adding that the hallway floors on the 36th floor were soaking wet. "They put a mask over my face and rushed me [out of the unit]."